Clean Eating (ish) BBT Pasta

So I'm not quite sure what the deal with pasta is. Is it clean? Is it not? Some people say whole wheat pasta is fine, some people only eat rice noodles, some people use gluten-free. You know what I did? Bought the cheapest out of those 3 options- which happened to be the gluten free version. I recognized all the ingredients so I figured what the hey, why not give it a shot? 

Also I know bacon isn't necessarily clean but it's paleo right? I try to stick to 80/20 (clean/not clean) so it fit into my week perfectly.

Ok and can we just talk about something? I've been cooking clean for almost a year now. Which means Harrison has only eaten clean dinners for almost a year. There have been maybe 3 times that he (ok we) hated the dish- 3 out of probably 300 is a pretty good average - yet every single time he is super skeptical and all like "ok I mean I'll try this to be nice" and 5 minutes later this man has eaten 5 servings. This was one of those meals.

The Sauce (adapted from PPK)

• 1 cup cashews, soaked in water for at least 2 hours
• 1 cup natural chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (ordered mine on Amazon!)
• Fresh lemon juice of one lemon
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

The Pasta:

• 1/2 pack of Pasta Noodles (whatever you feel is best!), cooked
• 3 large tomatoes, diced
• 4 strips turkey bacon, cooked
• 1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a blender and blend. 

Toss all the pasta ingredients together.

En.freaking.joy.

I don't know what about this was so good, maybe it was that I haven't had pasta in almost a year, but it was amazing.

Oh and wedding update: every time Harrison and I set aside time to send out our save the dates we get drunk and get nothing done. Which is fine. But really, we have opposite work schedules and the amount of times we have been to happy hour together in the last 3 years I can count on one hand, yet we have hit one hand worth of happy hours in the last two weeks. But hey, everyone tells us to enjoy our time as an engaged couple so I guess we are just taking their advice to heart? Tonight we went to a new place around the block from my work and Harrison got a fun-sized drink that I couldn't stop laughing about:

Tonight we're going to a wedding food tasting at Main Event Catering, can't wait!

Tell me: Any advice for wedding food tasting? What kind of pasta do you consider clean or DO you consider ANY pasta clean?

Linking up today at Delicious Dish Tuesday

Clean Eating (ish) BBT Pasta

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

2 Ingredient Crockpot Green Chicken + Weekend Recap

Ugh, Tuesday after a long weekend is like Monday on steroids. Fortunately I had a great/refreshing weekend and made a few delicious ovenless meals like this green chicken- I threw the 2 ingredients in the crockpot before I went hiking and when I came home it was ready!

This dish is also Tonii-approved which means anyone will like it (backstory: Tonii was a roommate who had never tried hummus , avocado, and a whole host of other "white" foods before we lived together. For the record- he would never choose to eat hummus or avocado but if they were the last 2 foods on the planet he could handle it).

Prep Time: 1 min (to pour stuff in the crockpot)
Cook Time: 6-8 hours
Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• Green Salsa (I used the one pictured below from Wal-Mart for $2.00)
• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast ($3.50)

Throw it all in the crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. Cut off the crockpot and allow to cool and absorb the juices for about 45 mins before serving.

I ate it with a black bean salad which was just a few spoonfuls of black beans, shredded lettuce, a scoop of fat-free Greek Yogurt and a scoop of salsa. I had leftovers as a salad the next day. MMM mmm.

This weekend some friends came over and we christened the front porch with a happy hour and some Sam Adams Summer Ale (y'all I wait all year for these and hoard them like Cadbury Mini Eggs).

Some friends and I went hiking in Great Falls on Saturday and I remembered why DC is the greatest city ever to live in, I mean really this is amazing:

My friend Tonii (as in Tonii-approved chicken) came home from Boston and we ate green chicken and watched the Ana Nicole Smith Story and Jodi Arias Story on Lifetime (Lifetime please give me more of these "docudramas")

Sunday we got up and went to see Christine Cain speak at church and ohhheemmmgeee I am ready to stop making excuses and do something with myself- this woman has done so much in her life, and had a major impact on human trafficking. Really take a lunch break and watch this video about not making excuses and putting our pride aside. And in case you don't want to click I put the video right here because this talk is THAT necessary to hear:



We at on the porch of Desperado's on U Street after- the drinks were good and my portobello burger was deelish!

Cooked out with some old friends Sunday night, had a lil photoshoot in front of an American flag:

FYI that's Tonii in the middle

Monday I made a green soup that I read is Zooey Deschanel's favorite to serve friends and ate it for lunch with a limited edition Sam. Obvi it was amazing:

Cooked out Monday night with Harrison's family and now to get back to some serious clean eating.

Linking up at Turn it Up Tuesdays, Delicious Dish Tuesdays,

2 Ingredient Crockpot Green Chicken + Weekend Recap

Tuesday, May 27, 2014